Forever Cool

Revolution

The Beatles – 1968

You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We’d all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well you know
We’d all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out…

This was the first overtly political song the Beatles recorded, reflecting the shift in Lennon’s 1967 creative focus on psychedelia, LSD, and Transcendental Meditation, which had collapsed in the wake of the Beatles’ February-April 1968 trip to India, (See The Journeymen) Lennon’s involvement with politicially-oriented artist Yoko Ono, and the growing social upheavals of 1968. McCartney was initially uneasy about the political nature of the song, which he felt was at odds with the Beatles’ style.